Pain Against Fear

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In our visual culture, sentiments like self-hate and fear of failure are seldom sexy or worthy of Instagram. You simply cannot profile yourself by means of utterances of pain. Or can you ?

Biting lyrics, catchy dance melodies and pounding beats : this is all the Dutch Naomi Velissariou needs to convince you of the contrary.

Pain Against Fear is the third theatrical concert of her Permanent Destruction series, in which she injects the pumping pop songs with pitch-black texts. In the first two parts based on Sarah Kane and Heiner Müller, Velissariou sang the hate in all its forms. This last part deals with the breeding ground of that hate : fear.

Pain Against Fear invites you to exorcise your own fear by celebrating it with others. This energetic concert makes the audience dance collectively to the rhythm of their individual pain. The music – varying between techno, trap, hardcore and punk – is a relentless mix of the stiff sound of producer Joost Maaskant and Velissariou's stubborn attempt at vulnerability. The result : mindfulness on speed.

Naomi Velissariou is a Dutch actress and singer connected to Theater Utrecht. In 2019 she won the Director's Award for The SK Concert. The performance was selected for both the Dutch and the Flemish TheaterFestival. The music of the Permanent Destruction series is to be found on Spotify, the videoclips on YouTube.